En route to the optimisation of energy usage at an automobile production site

02/15/2018

How e2m uses flexibility potential with the BMW Group battery farm at its Leipzig site

In sight of the energy transition, European industries began developing creative and pioneering energy-business concepts years ago and the implementation phase is starting now. One of these ideas is the BMW battery farm in Leipzig (opened in October 2017) – a project which was developed in cooperation with Energy2market GmbH (e2m).

For e2m, this cooperation constitutes another important element in its power storage activities. For some time, the operator of one of the biggest Virtual Power Plants (VPP) in Germany has worked on commercially viable solutions for industrial large-scale battery facilities, the integration of battery facilities into wind parks and sub-aggregation concepts for small accumulators of solar power.

The battery farm built at the BMW Group factory in Leipzig is a large energy storage system comprising up to 700 BMW i3 batteries – a large number of which are in their “second life” – forming the currently biggest battery facility of this type worldwide. This system can buffer energy, e.g. from wind power systems at the factory premises and, hence, optimise local energy management. Beyond the factory’s boundaries, the battery farm can also provide power bidirectionally as balancing power for the public grid – thus making a sustainable contribution to the stabilisation of the power grids.

BMW Group and e2m explained their cooperation at a press briefing at E-world: Within the factory, the battery farm is integrated into all energy flows via a BMW IT solution, while it is also connected to the e2m VPP via a standardised interface. In addition to the locally autonomous PBP control system, this interface also permits the real-time transmission of all the information to the e2m VPP for further optimisation of any trading options.

This system has recently been prequalified with the transmission system operator 50Hertz by e2m. As a result, it fulfils all the exacting requirements of primary balancing power (PBP) and is marketed already. Therefore, and in view of the fact that PBP still offers very lucrative revenue options, the project partners can quickly achieve excellent returns from the battery farm.

e2m does not only cooperate with BMW Group in the framework of the BMW battery farm in Leipzig, but already markets the flexibility of three other technologies together with BMW Group. Moreover, in the framework of funding projects, both companies are working towards the same goal, for example in the context of the WindNODE initiative, which focuses on promoting the intelligent use of renewable energies. The BMW battery farm in Leipzig is one of the projects forming part of this initiative. It is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy within the framework of the SINTEG programme which is showcasing intelligent energy and the digital agenda for the energy transition. e2m is a partner in this project, which is aimed at the comprehensive and intelligent networking of all system participants and focuses on the exploitation of flexibility options.

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